French bean

“ The Climbing French Bean is especially useful for producing crops under glass in spring and autumn, and the plants do well when grown in narrow borders with the vines trained close to the roof-glass by means of wire or string to which the growth readily clings. The general treatment may be much the same as that recommended for the Dwarf varieties, special care being taken with regard to watering and the giving of air. ”

“ I do not think it is widely enough known that, when English vegetables are ‘out’ the native bean (wake) if gathered very, very young, is practically indistinguishable from French beans, and a tuber (tumuku) in appearance and taste closely resembles new potatoes; both plants grow like weeds and are immensely prolific ”

“ They may be served with the Salad Entrée dressing, Improved Mayonnaise or French dressing, with oil or lemon juice or with Chili sauce, but they all spoil that delightful bean flavor in the rich, thick juice. Beans have a characteristic flavor which is destroyed by the addition of anything but salt and water. Molasses, cream, nut butter and tomato are all good in their place, but that is not in baked beans if we attain to the keenest enjoyment of the bean flavor. We get the rich red color, without the rank molasses taste, by prolonged baking. ”

“ A much more graceful vegetable is the Phaseolus vulgaris, the kidney, or, as the idiotic French call it, the haricot bean. It is just as sensible to call a leg of Welsh mutton a pré salé, or salt meadow. No well-behaved hashed venison introduces himself to our notice unless accompanied by a dish of kidney beans. And few people in Europe besides Frenchmen and convicts eat the dried seeds of this form of bean, which is frequently sown in suburban gardens to form a fence to keep out cats. ”

“ French Beans, when eaten before they attain to maturity, are equally palatable and wholesome; and, if ground and mixed with wheaten flour, they would, like other beans or pease, make a good and nourishing bread;—yet the daily use of it is apt to produce costiveness, and otherwise to disorder the alimentary canal. ”

“ The outdoor culture of Climbing French Beans is practically the same as for the Dwarf varieties, except that the former are usually grown in double rows about four to five feet apart. Allow the plants to stand finally at nine to twelve inches each way, and support them with bushy sticks such as are used for Peas, for Climbing Beans will run far more readily on these than on single sticks. ”

“ I think these deserve to be served in a course by themselves, even more than peas. If they are served with a joint they must simply be made hot in a tin, then drained and allowed to dry, and handed round just as they are. French beans go best with a haunch of venison or roast mutton. If, however, you serve the beans as a course by themselves, you must, after making them hot and draining off the liquid, add a couple of tablespoonfuls of good white sauce, that is béchamel sauce, or if you have none, add to a tin of beans about enough fresh butter to fill a dessertspoon ”

“ In Sicily and Tuscany, girls who desire a husband learn their fate by means of Beans, in this fashion:—They put into a bag three Beans—one whole, another without the eye, a third without the rind. Then, after shaking them up, they draw one from the bag. The whole Bean signifies a rich husband; the Bean without an eye signifies a sickly husband; and the Bean without rind a husband without a penny.——The French have a legend, of one Pipette, who, like our Jack, reaches the sky by means of a Bean-stalk. ”

“ French Beans require more heat than can be obtained in either a frame or an ordinary greenhouse; and, although easy enough to grow in a structure suited to their requirements, yet, if such does not exist, they are almost sure to fail. ”

“ Beans, French, Plain Boiled.—French beans are only good when fresh gathered, and the younger they are the better. When small they can be boiled whole, in which case they only require the tips cut off and the string that runs down the side removed. ”

“ It is, however, a rather coarse food, and difficult of digestion, and is chiefly used to feed horses, for which it is admirably adapted. In England French beans are chiefly, almost exclusively, used in the green state ”

“ Among summer vegetables Dwarf French Beans are deservedly in high favour, and are everywhere sown at the earliest moment consistent with reasonable expectations of their safety. This early sowing is altogether laudable, for although it occasionally entails the loss of a plantation, the aggregate result is advantageous, and a very little protection suffices to carry the early plant through the late spring frosts. But those who supply our tables with green delicacies do not all recognise the importance of late sowings of Dwarf Beans. ”

“ A large number of the varieties of both the green-podded and the wax-podded beans are used almost exclusively as snap beans, to be eaten with the pod while tender. The various strains of the Black Wax are the most popular string beans. The pole or running beans are used either green or dried, and the Limas, both tall and dwarf, are well known for their superior flavor either as shelled or dry beans. The old-fashioned Cranberry or Horticultural Lima type (a pole form of Phaseolus vulgaris) is probably the best shell bean, but the trouble of poling makes it unpopular. ”

“ Black Beans were considered to be male, and white female, the latter being the inferior.——De Gubernatis relates several curious customs connected with Beans. In Tuscany, the fire of St. John is lighted in a Bean-field, so that it shall burn quickly. In Sicily, on Midsummer Eve, Beans are eaten with some little ceremony, and the good St. John is thanked for having obtained the blessings of a bountiful harvest from God. At Modica, in Sicily, on October 1st, a maiden in love will sow two Beans in the same pot. The one represents herself, the other the youth she loves. ”

“ Vegetables.—Of vegetables we have a great abundance. Green peas are plentiful and cheap, and the later varieties will keep our tables supplied for many weeks yet. French beans, said to be in season when beef is in perfection, broad beans, artichokes, cauliflowers, cabbage, carrots, marrows, outdoor mushrooms if the weather is propitious, outdoor cucumbers for the next 10-12 weeks, and salad of all kinds grown quickly and crisp in summer weather, new potatoes at their best, all belong to July. ”

“ By cultivation many varieties have been produced, of which the following are the best known: Broad Bean, an important article of food in Europe and western Asia, and valuable forage plant, grown in gardens and as a field crop. All species of the bean have a very high food value; are relatively cheap in price, but much less easily digested than cereals. Lima Bean, widely cultivated in tropical Africa, sparingly in temperate regions. Production in the United States most extensive in California. ”

“ The huge national publicity drive, which was to end the Great War, was on—the drive for the conservation of the bean. On every wall, in every newspaper, upon every tongue was the slogan: Beans for Our Boys. Six million school children were working every evening on their national prize essays on The Message of the Bean. Beautiful artists' models of every type were seen on every billboard, bending tenderly over flowering beans. Upon every woman's page in the press appeared the model menus for beanless days. ”

“ Beans were introduced by the Moors into Spain, whence they came to France and later to England. It is possible, however, that they were brought to Britain by the Romans. They are now largely imported from Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and the Netherlands. There are many varieties, as the Mazagan, the Windsor, the long-pod, &c., in gardens, and the horse or tick bean in fields. The soil that best suits is a good strong clay. The seed of the Windsor is fully an inch in diameter; the horse bean is much less, often not much more than half an inch in length and three-eighths of an inch in diameter. ”

“ When you come to the very limit—to the farthest point which you or any man on earth can possibly reach by yourself—it is just a strip of green grass from twenty to four hundred yards wide, straggling across France and Belgium from the sea to the Swiss border. I suppose that French and English men have sanctified every part of that narrow ribbon by dying there. But the grass of those old paddocks grows unkempt like a shock head of hair. ”

“ Planted in August, they are excellent until frost; the very best for pickling. For an early shell-bean we recommend the China red-face; the white kidney and numerous other varieties are less certain and productive.
Running Beans are numerous. The true Lima, very large, greenish, when ripe and dry, is the richest bean known; is nearly as good in winter, cooked in the same way, as when shelled green. They are very productive, continuing in blossom till killed by frost. [Pg 63] In warm countries they grow for years, making a tree, or growing like a large grapevine. ”

“ Through the whole of my route from Marseilles, I observe they plant a great deal of cane or reed, which is convenient while growing, as a cover from the cold and boisterous winds, and when cut, it serves for espaliers to vines, peas, &c. Through Piedmont, Lombardy, the Milanese, and Genoese, the garden bean is a great article of culture; almost as much so as corn. At Albenga, is a rich plain opening from between two ridges of mountains, triangularly, 346 to the sea, and of several miles extent. Its growth is olives, figs, mulberries, vines, corn, and beans. There is some pasture. ”

“ Field-Beans.—For general culture there are three varieties of white—small, medium, and large. Of all known beans, we prefer the medium white. The China bean, white with a red face, is an early variety. All ripen nearly at the same time. It cooks almost as soon as a potato, and is good for the table; but it is less productive, and less saleable because not wholly white. For planting among corn, as for a very late crop, this bean is valuable, because it matures in so short a time. Good beans may be raised among corn, without injury to the corn-crop. ”

“ BAUHINIA.—The leaves of the Bauhinia or Ebony-tree are two-lobed, or twin—a character, which suggested to Plumier the happy idea of naming the genus after the two famous brothers, John and Caspar Bauhin, botanists of the sixteenth century.
BEANS.—Among the ancients, there appears to have been a superstitious aversion to Beans as an article of food, arising from the resemblance of the fruit to a portion of the human body. The Egyptians, among whom the Sacred Bean was an object of actual worship, would not partake of it as food, probably on that account ”

“ Taking the Crop.—The pods should be gathered for use when the seeds are comparatively young, or when they are of the size of a marrowfat-pea. As a general rule, all vegetables are most tender and delicate when young; and to few [Pg 505] esculents does this truth apply with greater force than to the class of plants to which the English Bean belongs.
Use.—The seeds are used in their green state, cooked and served in the same manner as shelled kidney-beans. The young pods are sometimes, though rarely, used as string-beans. ”

“ Our railway train and the policeman had carried us over endless farmlands, through forests, beside rivers, before we noticed, drawn up along the side of a quarter of a mile of road, an endless procession of big grey motor-lorries. Every one was exactly like the next—a tall grey hood in front and a long grey tarpaulin behind. It was the first sign of the front. Presently a French regiment went by along a country road—not at all unlike our Australian troops in some ways—biggish fellows in grey-blue overcoats, all singing a jolly song. ”

“ Besides, there is not a doubt that, of our various culinary acquisitions, the broad bean is the earliest in date. Its exceptional dimensions and its pleasant flavour have certainly attracted man’s attention since the most remote times. ”

“ Pole beans are not strictly annuals. In a climate where the winter does not destroy them they bear again the second year, and we believe yet longer. Gov. Pinney, of Liberia, on the African coast, stated in a lecture, speaking of the vegetable productions of that region, that the bean was a permanent vine like the grape, bearing its crops from year to year without replanting. The bush bean is strictly an annual. ”

“ It is quite at home on heavy land, but in common with nearly all other vegetables it thrives on a deep sandy loam. Considering the productive nature of the plant and its comparatively brief occupation of the ground, the common Bean must be regarded as one of our most profitable garden crops. Both the Longpod and Windsor classes should be grown. For general work the Longpods are invaluable; they are early, thoroughly hardy, produce heavy crops, and in appearance and flavour satisfy the world at large, as may be proved by appeal to the markets. ”

“ Why do we respect some vegetables and despise others, when all of them come to an equal honor or ignominy on the table? The bean is a graceful, confiding, engaging vine; but you never can put beans into poetry, nor into the highest sort of prose. There is no dignity in the bean. Corn, which, in my garden, grows alongside the bean, and, so far as I can see, with no affectation of superiority, is, however, the child of song. It waves in all literature. ”

“ I have no root; I have no stem; or, if I have, they never move upward nor downward, as you say. Are you sure you are not mistaken?"
"Why, of course I'm not mistaken," cried the bean. "I feel within myself that I can grow; and I have absorbed so much moisture that I must soon begin."
Just then the bean's coat split from end to end, and for one or two minutes neither the stone nor the bean spoke. The stone was astonished, and the bean was a little frightened. However, he soon recovered his courage.
"There!" said he, showing the two packages he had been carrying; "these are my seed-leaves. ”